Articles

Liberal democracy theory allows for the existence of the dominant party in the system recognized as a competitive democracy. Being an integral part of actual liberal democracies, dominant parties make a considerable impact on the theoretical underpinnings of such systems and their functioning, which is a justifi cation for studying their features and behaviour patterns with the aim of uncovering their emergence, development and decline mechanisms. The article looks into the phenomenon of the dominant party drawing on the seven widely acknowledged and signifi cant cases (Italy, Germany, India, Japan, South Africa, Ishuv-Israel, Sweden) and puts forward a new defi nition of the dominant party grounded in empirical data. The article also provides an analysis of the internal structure and the essential features of the functioning of dominant parties and presents conclusions about the causes of the emergence and development of dominant parties and the reasons for them retaining this status.

This study is devoted to problematic aspects in the implementation of the Russian politics of memory. The methodological basis of the work is a descriptive analysis of expert interviews. The eff ectiveness of the politics of memory is evaluated by the experts from a pragmatic point of view: its main tasks are seen as the creation of a positive Russian image in the domestic and foreign policy arenas; the formation and strengthening of nation-state identity; and the consolidation of Russian society. Attempts to use politics of memory as an instrument for settling international relations via concessions are assessed negatively by the experts. The building of a national politics of memory is assumed solely on the basis of the “memory of the winners.” An appeal to a discourse on “the memory of the vanquished” is seen as a destructive approach fraught with serious political risks. Among the latter are the erosion of Russian identity; the particularization of society; the growth of social anomie; and an increase in the infl uence of political and religious radicals. The article further emphasizes the principal “sore points” of Russian politics of memory: its opportunistic nature; the controversial, complex nature of the content side; a disregard for foreign experience; and the presence of outdated elements among the tools for infl uencing the target audience. Another problem is the presence in Russian mass culture of such patterns as the theme of the hero’s victory “in spite of the system” and the physical and moral anti-esthetics in demonstrations of “our own” [svoi] being passed off as realism.

This article provides an overview of various aspects of the relationships between political parties and social movements that form incentives, strategies and results of alliances between them. The electoral aspect describes how movements mobilize the electorate for parties. The state and political-parliamentary aspect is the provision by parties of opportunities for movements to infl uence adopted laws. The agenda and lobbying aspect is the ability of movements to pursue their interests through parties and for parties and movements to use each other to draw public attention to specifi c issues. The identity aspect is the cultivation and dissemination of social identities as a result of the union of parties and movements. The aspect of adversarial politics is the assistance of parties to movements when the latter act in the interests of the parties, but using non-parliamentary methods. The aspect of protests and “street politics” is the representation of movements by parties in parliament in exchange for representation by movements of parties on the street. The aspect of external context and crises is the assistance of movements to parties to consolidate society or completely transfer this prerogative to the movements. The aspect of the autocratic context and democratic transformations is the transformation of relations between movements and parties in autocracies, transitional regimes, and new and established democracies. These interactions are characterized by a regular exchange and “barter” of memberships, support, resources, ideas, and, of course, power between actors of varying degrees of institutionalization. The author demonstrates that such unions are sooner or later characterized by attempts of the allies to subordinate, co-opt and instrumentalize each other, to impose their own ideological and programmatic basis and structural model on one another.

This article presents some of the results of “A Study of the Political Culture of Students,” a research project carried out by scholars at the East China University of Political Science and Law. The project sought to analyze the political consciousness and culture of modern Chinese students, assessing the specifi cs and dynamics of changes in political views and ideology among young people studying in humanitarian universities. In its conclusion, the project reported that Chinese students are distinguished by a rather high degree of confi dence in the Communist Party of China and its political course toward the socialist development of the country. In the new conditions of the information age, the political consciousness and culture of Chinese students are formed under the infl uence of the Internet and have become more pluralistic and open. In the future, Chinese universities should conduct purposeful and systematic work to improve the level of political consciousness and culture among students, organizing various types of social practice for university students.

The contemporary world celebrates the 75th anniversary of the victory over fascism and the defeat of Nazi Germany as a result of World War II. The anniversary of the victory is rendered important by the need to resist active attempts to distort history, to negate the decisive role of the Soviet people and their army in defeating fascism. The Great Patriotic War has no equal in history in terms of the grandeur and intensity of the armed struggle and the eff orts expended on the home front. The decisive role of the Soviet Union in the defeat of fascist Germany was noted by many contemporaries, not only allies (such as Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example) but also opponents. The allies of the anti-Hitler coalition launched widespread off ensives only in the last stage of the war, when the victory was a foregone conclusion and paid for at a high price. The USSR lost 26.6 million citizens, including 8.7 million military personnel and 17.9 million ivilians. Thus it was that the Soviet people saved themselves and European civilization from destruction.

In a democratic political process, non-violent protest is an important channel of communication between civil society and the state. The growth of protest activity shows that part of the population is dissatisfi ed with the current political and economic situation, as well as with its place in the stratifi cation of society. Since 2017 there has been an increase in youth protest activity. Some protests of recent years have been accompanied by confl icts between protesters and the police, with subsequent detention of the former. This article presents the results of a sociological survey of some 600 young people, 14 to 30 years of age, conducted in Moscow schools, colleges and universities over 2018–2019. It analyzes the attitude of young people to the situation in the country, to various forms of political activity and, in particular, to protest activity and the infl uence of political ideologies and the Internet on the latter.

This article presents an analysis of the personnel reserve management structure of the state bodies of the Russian Federation. On the basis of current legislation, the author describes two independent categories of personnel reserve, diff ering in goals and objectives, within the Federation system of public administration. The fi rst category includes the personnel reserve in public service, designed to ensure the activities of state bodies at the federal and regional levels. The general management of the system of selection and training of new employees is carried out by the government. A second category includes the reserve of managerial personnel created to replace senior managers in state bodies at the federal and regional levels. A separate type of reserve of managerial personnel is the presidential personnel reserve, designed for the rapid replacement of key positions by decision of the head of state. According to the author, the defi nition of the structure of the personnel reserve will help to eliminate contradictions in the understanding of the specifi cs of the formation of the personnel reserve at diff erent levels of government and to identify the features of the selection and preparation of new candidates for positions in each category.

This article is devoted to the study of the food regime, a concept little known in Russian academic literature. The author identifi es the “theoretical and methodological platform” of the concept using a comparative approach and retrospective analysis. The ensemble of a comparative-historical approach, a method of analyzing secondary data and a forecasting method contributed to the consolidation of the concept of the food regime as a tool capable of streamlining the global stages of production, consumption and distribution of food in historical retrospect as well as in the foreseeable future. The author demonstrates that the consistent transformation of food regimes comes about due to the confl ict between two principles, “protectionism” and “ free trade,” which are eff ectively adapted to diff erent political and economic realities. The identifi ed “sequence” is consistent with the general position of the theory of Karl Polanyi (the Double Movement) and allows us to assert that the foundation of the Fourth Food Regime will be based on a modifi ed version of protectionism. This is confi rmed by the growing popularity of the transnational movement La Via Campesina and the growing demand for its revolutionary strategy of Food Sovereignty.